Attributed to Victor Barbizet or Thomas Sergent, Pair of baluster vases with Medusa decoration, Circa 1867, terra cotta with lead glaze, Paris, France

This vase features a high foot, a baluster-shaped body and two faux-wood handles around which snakes coil. Both sides of the vase feature a Medusa head with its mouth closed, set against a mauve-gray background. A similar model, preserved in the Musée Adrien Dubouché in Limoges, features an open-mouthed Medusa head and comes from Barbizet’s workshop. This dissimilarity between the Galerie Vauclair piece and the one in the museum raises questions about the provenance of the piece, whose style could be similar to that of Thomas Sergent. Sergent may have borrowed the model from another Palissyste. Last but not least, this baluster vase with its invasive plant decoration is reminiscent of the Medici vases invaded by Virginia creeper and other climbing plants in gardens. Barbizet produced numerous pieces of horticultural pottery for Dijon’s Natural History Gardens and the winter gardens of the bourgeoisie in the second half of the 19th century.